DON'T Sell to Your Customers. SERVE Them! ft. Angela Alea | Revenue Reimagined Ep. 028

Angela Alea, President and CRO of Lasso, joins the show to discuss her journey building a vertical SaaS company that serves the live event and entertainment industry. Initially swearing off a career in sales due to its negative stigma, Angela explains how she embraced revenue leadership by fundamentally redefining what it means to sell. By shifting her focus from extracting value from customers to genuinely serving them, she illustrates how a service-first mindset naturally drives revenue. Throughout the episode, she highlights the importance of resilience, describing it as a crucial muscle built through the daily setbacks of startup life. Angela shares how ignoring competitive noise to focus on your 'North Star' and choosing the right business partner can make or break the entrepreneurial journey. She also emphasizes how making tough, customer-centric decisions—like pausing payments during the COVID-19 shutdowns—ultimately forged unbreakable brand loyalty. Finally, Angela provides a practical framework for scaling responsibly and improving Customer Success. She advises against merely adding headcount, urging leaders to optimize the entire customer journey using data. Her three-step framework for CS engagements—Learn something, Teach something, Prescribe something—ensures every client interaction is meaningful and drives true customer success rather than just baseline satisfaction.

Discussed in this episode

• How Lasso discovered the events industry was underserved and running primarily on spreadsheets.
• Why founders should stop looking at competitors and focus purely on their North Star.
• Building the resilience muscle through the inevitable daily setbacks of startup life.
• The critical importance of having a business partner to balance emotional highs and lows.
• Lasso's pivotal COVID-19 decision to pause customer payments to build long-term brand loyalty.
• Why you should never sell or represent a product you don't wholly believe in.
• How true scaling requires data, automation, and process efficiency, not just headcount.
• A three-step Customer Success framework to stop 'checking in' and start adding value.

Episode highlights

1. 1:00 — Angela's career journey and Lasso's origin
2. 4:30 — Why Lasso ignored industry best practices
3. 7:15 — Building startup resilience through daily setbacks
4. 9:40 — The importance of the right business partner
5. 12:50 — Navigating COVID-19 and pausing payments
6. 16:20 — Redefining sales as a service profession
7. 20:00 — Scaling responsibly using data over gut
8. 23:15 — The Learn, Teach, Prescribe CS framework

Key takeaways

• Serve your customers instead of selling to them to build trust.
• Scale with data and efficiency before automatically adding more headcount.
• Prioritize brand loyalty over short-term revenue during extreme market crises.
• Stop 'checking in' and start teaching and prescribing in customer meetings.
• Build a resilient mindset by embracing and learning from daily setbacks.

Transcript

with any startup, I feel like every day felt like a setback, right? It's like one step forward, three back, you know? Welcome back to another episode of the Revenue Reimagine Podcast. Uh if I could stop coughing, it'll be a good show.

We have Angela Alea. I hope I pronounced that right. I normally ask before and I didn't. You did and no one does, but you got it right.

Look at that. It's going to be a good show. Angela is the president and CRO at Lasso, which if you don't know, is the platform where event and entertainment companies work. What I find fascinating, um, is Angela swore she would never do sales, yet you've spent the last 20 years in revenue producing roles, everything from sales to sales training to sales ops to revenue leadership.

When you're not redefining, and we're going to dig into that because I love that word, what sales is, and more importantly, what it isn't. You live in Atlanta, outside of Atlanta in Alpharetta with your husband, two kids, two dogs, uh, and hopefully you get some time to enjoy that. Alpharetta is beautiful. I've been there a few times.

Thank you for uh, thanks for joining the show, Angela. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Thanks for joining us, well.

Yeah, actually I'll be down in Atlanta soon, a couple of weeks, so. We got a live in there. Yeah, right when we're launching this, I think. Uh, so, cool.

We Well, we want to start out, we talked to a lot of founders and people that are running businesses and we really want to understand the origin story. Like, why was it started? Like, why did you guys get going with Lasso and like, what's that value that you saw and you're like, I need that to push out to everybody else. Yeah.

So, I found my way to Lasso through Lasso's founder because he used to be a client of mine in a previous life and uh, and he owned and ran a um, mid-sized production company. So, they design and produce live events. So, if you've ever been to Dreamforce, those sorts of things. That's the kind of work they would do.

And I will never forget him telling me things like, um, hey, did you know the Super Bowl, the Oscars, the Grammys, it's all produced on a spreadsheet. And I'm like, there's no way when I go to a concert or to a Falcon's game that all that's done on a spreadsheet. He's like, oh, yeah, it is. Our Our industry is so underserved.

I'm like, that That That's got to be just your company that operates that way. Not Not the whole industry. Um, he's like, nope. It's the whole industry and I want to start a company and I want you to come help me run it.

And so, my background was in workforce management, his was in event production. So, we kind of combined our skill sets and here we are 10 years later changing the industry and really excited about it. I love that. What's your What's your favorite event that you guys have been able to help produce?

Oh my god, there's so many great ones. I mean, for me, the fun part for me is when me and my family go somewhere. Um, Like, for example, my daughter, she's I've got two teenagers. She's totally into Kane Brown.

Loves Kane Brown. So, well, at least a few years ago. Still love my Kane Brown. But, um, she she we went there and the people that were letting us in the door.

I it's just like a fun game I play. I'm like, hey, tell me how Who do you work for? How'd you get this job? And they're like, oh, you see this Lasso mobile app?

Like, the company I work for, they use it. I'm like, very cool. I I kind of know that company. So, it's a fun game to kind of play.

Yeah. That's awesome. Do you um, I'm gonna go totally off topic, but because you guys power all these events, like, do you get tickets? Do you get access to events?

Or is that not a fringe benefit? Well, I'm channeling my husband right now. If he were here, he would say you should totally ask. You should totally ask.

I don't ever ask. If I were to ask some of my customers, sure. I'm sure they would. But I don't ask that.

Um, one part of our company though is the crew marketplace where if people run out of um, technical talent to help produce an event, they can hire them through us. So, our employees are actually the ones also actually working the events too. So, every now and then I get to pop in to kind of check on our Our team and kind of see some of the events. But no, I'm not I'm not uh attending all those, yeah.

We're not scoring We're not scoring free Taylor Swift tickets. Taylor Taylor is Dale's favorite. Um, That's uh, that's super cool though. Only when she's getting uh, uh, hidden into the Chiefs games.

Right? I hear that I hear that they put her in like a A of those big production boxes. Yeah, exactly. Sneak her in.

Yeah. As someone who um, goes to a ton of concerts, a ton of Broadway shows, a decent amount of sporting events. You You would never think that it's all run to your point like on a Google sheet. Um, and it's mind-blowing everything that has to be put together.

Yeah. So, let's talk about assumptions a little bit, right? Sure. So, in the early stages of startups, everyone There There's all these assumptions that we hear from other founders, VCs, do this, don't do that.

Go hire 20 sales reps and they're just going to help scale your company. Please don't do that. Um, but lots of assumptions to how to be How to How to grow and how to scale. What are some of these like industry best practices or assumptions that you guys just chose to say, F it.

We're not gonna do this. We're gonna do it our way. Yeah. I You know, I'm gonna talk about it from the industry we serve through their lens, right?

The The industry we entered had zero best practices, right? And literally, there There's nothing standard in the event entertainment industry. Nomenclatures are off. Every company does it a little bit differently.

And so, sometimes you have to come in and kind of challenge the norm and have the confidence and courage to do that. Um, so whether you're providing software for an industry or whether you're scaling a revenue team, if if you are confident in what you see, then you just need to have the courage to act on that, right? Because no two, you know, I follow all the thought leaders and SAS leaders. And sometimes in the early days I would beat myself up.

I'm like, well, how are they doing that? And we need to your point. We need Maybe we need to do that. And then it's like, I don't know though.

From my vantage point, I just see it differently, right? And so, I quickly understood that a lot of companies are different. There are different circumstances. So much of it has to do with the talent you have on your team.

It's just not the head count, right? Sometimes you could have an incredible leader that can do the work of three, right? Just in their sleep without any effort. And then you have others that might need more tools and resources.

So, I just I'm not a big believer that there's only one way to skin the cat. I think you have to kind of trust your instincts and your gut and have the courage to kind of pursue that. Yeah. I I used to fall into that.

Sorry, Dale. I know I cut you off. But like, and Dale will tell you. Like, I used to mess he's like, I'm used to it.

Um, but I I I used to message him be like with like LinkedIn screenshots and shit of like, oh, you know, people did this or someone's doing that. And I I don't give Dale a lot of credit. But I think it took about three times of him to tell me like, do you You won't get offended if I swear, will you? No, me?

Um, so he he he he is. He's he's like, who gives a fuck? He's like, let's focus on what we're building. It doesn't matter what they're building.

Ignore the competition and let's do right by our customers and grow and let them do whatever it is they do. Whether they get to a million or 10 million, all it's going to do is distract us. Um, so I love that mindset. Yeah.

It's so true. I mean, a lot of times around here we talk about our North Star. And look, it's human nature, especially when you have competition or you're trying to understand what the leading SAS companies are doing out there to spend so much of your time looking left and right. But if you're so busy looking left and right, you're not focused on what's right ahead of you or your North Star because you're so busy and then you get in your own head, well, they're doing that.

Maybe we should do that versus just cut out the noise. Focus do what you're hired to do and, you know, go be the best version of that. So that leads really well into the next piece that we we talk about a lot, which are setbacks. So, um, share a moment in the journey.

I mean, you guys have been journeying for a little bit here and uh that didn't go as planned, but that navigate that setback actually set you up going forward. Yeah, well, I think with um, with any startup, I feel like every day felt like a setback, right? It's like one step forward, three back, you know? It was just everywhere you turn, it's a wrong assumption, a wrong higher, a wrong something, right?

And so, but I think what that does, I think to start your own business as as you two know, right? Like, you've ventured out and started your own thing and you're having great success. But it it builds that resiliency muscle. And it is a muscle.

The only way you become resilient is by falling and then getting back up. It just makes you stronger and stronger. It's like when you're working out, right? And you're tearing the muscle and then it builds back up stronger, right?

But I think resilience is one of those things. It's it's just a muscle that you learn and you learn it the hard way. So, I think it it's not even startups. It's life in general today, right?

It's just full of setbacks, whether it's personal, professional, whatever it is. I think it's um, it's a crazy world we live in and I think the sooner you can learn to be resilient, not get in your own head, um, and just you just have to keep moving versus sitting in it. And I think that's a really important um, thing that no matter what What stage you are in your career, you've got you've just got to learn how to do that. Especially now, right?

Because I think the one of the challenges even with established companies, like I think it's even harder for them because you have established companies or people that have been in jobs for a long time. And all of a sudden, they're like cutting their workforce or they hired too fast and they're trying to maneuver it and then like you, you don't have a job anymore and you're like, where do I go? And then you're trying to build that resilience muscle when you're like, older. I don't think I think that's very, very difficult.

So, um, I've done startups for so long. I think I just him callous. Like, I I hear David Goggins a lot in my head sometimes. And it's like, you just gotta callous the mind to uh, to some of the challenges that you have.

So true. Yeah. I mean, callous, but no, I'm kidding. Um, you know, it it's funny though.

You say, you talk about not getting stuck in your own head. Um, and I think that's something that a lot of founders can't avoid, right? Um, it's it's like, oh, this went wrong. It's the end of the world.

You know, it's the end of the world as we know it. Um, first time I ever sang on the show. Um, And it was really bad. Please don't do it again.

It it it Yeah, listen. I I did radio. I didn't I didn't. You never know what's gonna happen on the show.

You never know what's gonna happen. Um, Dale's his favorite artist. His favorite artist is Pink, so. I mean, she is up there.

I do like Pink. Hey, don't don't. So, I mean, we we can totally We can totally sidetrack this and have a real conversation, too. So, Pink was down here in Miami a couple months ago.

Um, I surprised my wife with tickets and the concert was so good. We bought tickets for the next night in Fort Lauderdale. She's phenomenal. I've seen her.

She puts on one of the one of the top five, probably one of the top three live shows I've ever seen. So, Dale can knock her all he wants. She sells sells out every arena in the country she goes to. Um, Dale Dale, on the other hand, him and his wife um, go to like Snoop and stuff and like I I just because I like my 12-year-old listens to rap all day long, it's like the last thing I want to hear is rap music.

And I I looking at Dale and like how neat and organized he is and it's like I just can't picture him jamming out at a rap concert. Um, Hey. But I graduated in 93, so. But I I I I digress.

Um, so a lot of founders do get stuck in their head. And I certainly, you know, went through that. How do you like, what's your advice for like a first-time founder, even a second-time founder to not let that noise turn them down, to not let that noise be like, oh my god, it's it's We had a customer complaint and and and it's over. We're gonna die.

The company's gonna end. Yeah. I think um, this is so understated, but I think and you you guys can each kind of attest to this. It's not just important.

I think it's a make or break in who you start a company with. You have to have some like, everyone talks about, oh, you know, running a small business startup, it's so grueling and it is. But you know who it's really grueling for is that lone entrepreneur who doesn't have a business partner, who doesn't have even a coach, somebody to Somebody who just kind of like settles you, right? And so, having a good person to do this with is I think so important.

So, when I'm to your point like going off the deep end, my business partner's like, it's all right. Shelley, fine. And when he's having a moment, you know, it it's kind of funny how it works that way, right? We both don't usually get dark on the same day, thank god, because that could be really bad.

Um, but it's true. I mean, it happens and I think it's I think it's really important to surround yourself with people who are not gonna let you sit in it, um, and are gonna encourage you to keep moving. I love that. Because as reality is leaders, we have to do that for our teams, too, right?

Like, when I my definition of a good day or bad day is totally dependent on the type of day that our team has had. If they're having a good day, I'm having a good day. When they're having a bad day, I feel that for them. And so, I think that as leaders we also have to kind of keep that in check and realize that they're looking to us too to not stay dark, keep moving, right?

Not not just wallow in it. Such a good point. Wish I had a business partner like that. Um, oh, I do.

Wow. Wow. he says. Actually, it's funny cuz it it it is true like I don't think we have dark days like um, on the same day.

Like, it'll be like I'll be down and I'll have something or he will and and Adam will be like, okay, it's like, this is what we're gonna do. So, we actually you do. You get that balance out and we um, we we've talked to a lot of other people just as fractional leaders or people that are doing the same stuff and I think it's very difficult if you're trying to do it on your own. Like, there's some trainers out there and people that have done it on their own, they try to bring people into the business and everyone wants to just work with them and then it gets it gets really lonely.

So, it's it's tough. But even even with the wrong partner, everyone just wants to work with me. So, how do how do you balance that? Man, narcissism does not run in your family.

Okay. No, not at all. I'm very humble, Dale. I I kid, by the way.

I kid. Give um, what's one critical decision or inflection point that you had in your business um, as a founder or you could give to other founders that are starting to run their business like that critical decision slash inflection point that you're like, it it like kind of flipped the switch with the business for you guys. People buy from people. That's why companies who invest in meaningful connections win.

The best part? Gifting doesn't have to be expensive to drive results, just thoughtful. Sendoso's intelligent gifting platform is designed to boost personalized engagement throughout the entire sales process. Trust me, I led sales for a Sendoso competitor, and I could tell you, no one does gifting better than Sendoso.

If you're looking for a proven way to win and retain more customers, visit sendoso.com. Oh, gosh, there's so many. Um, I would say, there's two that kinda stand out.

One is when COVID hit, obviously all businesses were affected for sure. Um, the events industry was the very first to shut down and the very last to come back. Um, it was very petrifying. All of our customers were 100% shut down overnight, which meant no money coming in.

Um, and you know, we were prepared to lose the majority of our business. We didn't know what to expect. Um, but we decided, let's stop selling and let's instead focus on creating brand loyalty. And so, we paused payments for the majority of our customers indefinitely.

Meanwhile, we still had payroll to make. We still had to do those things. Um, and I think that that was a pivotal moment for our company because we figured out very quickly who we were, what kind of company we were, um, even when it's hard to make those decisions. Um, and at the end of the day, we Our revenue's only ended up dropping like 14%.

But that was a really scary thing. But it was it was the right thing to do, knowing what our customers were going through as well. Um, so there was that one. Then I think, you know, other ones are when you have to make changes within your team.

Those are really really hard to do because different people um, are suited for different phases of a business, right? It's horses for courses. Um, and so I think that that can be a really hard thing to do. But once you make the move and make that decision, it's amazing how um, the validation that you get.

But I think those are those are scary but pivotal decisions that that happened, too. Yeah, I don't I don't know if you've ever heard of or used EOS. It's right person, right seat is all is what they say. And that can evolve over time because you have to define what those that right seat is like for that moment.

Yeah. Um, and I think in the long run it's probably better for everybody. But in that in that in that moment in time it is very difficult. Yeah, doesn't feel that way.

You're right. Yeah. Personal decisions are amongst the hardest. You know, it's you have Everyone has different philosophies, right?

Hire slow, fire fast, hire fast, fire fast, hire fast, fire slow. Um, and I I think it depends on the people. But it it's never easy to make a change. Like, unless someone lied, cheats or steals, you know, then it's it's a pretty cut and dry decision.

Yeah. That's right. That's right. Um, but assuming positive intent that even if someone's underperforming, they want to do a good job.

Um, but they might just be the wrong person. Yeah. Right? You um, when we opened, we talked about your view on sales and specifically used the word redefining what sales is and what sales isn't.

Um, and those were your words. That was your bio. So, I I I I want to come back to it. Talk to me about redefining sales because I think that sales has changed a ton over God, I mean, even the past 30 days.

But certainly over the past 18 to 24 months. Yeah. What does redefining sales mean to you? Well, it means the same thing it meant to me years ago, which is when I said I like, I remember in college all my professors were like, you're totally gonna be in sales.

I'm like, you mark my words, I promise you, I will never be in sales a day in my life. Take that dirty word back, right? Because sales has a bad connotation. Yeah.

And even for our sales team when we're interviewing people, I I tell our sales people. I'm like, I'm not I'm actually not looking for a sales person. I don't want somebody who is there um, to convince somebody why something makes sense, to, you know, get all you can out of them. You know, that's that's just not the mentality.

And I've built my sales career on serving over selling. And I feel like if you approach it that way, first of all, don't ever represent a product or a service that you are not literally in love with, that you do not believe in wholeheartedly, because you can't fake it. Can can we can we pause there for a second? Sure.

So, I I I agree with you, but there's so many people out there, the gurus, who we all know, who will tell you, it doesn't matter. Selling is selling, right? It doesn't matter what you sell. You can sell anything.

I I I I agree with you from a everything from a founder perspective to a seller, arguably the CS and everything in between. If you don't love what you're doing, if you're not passionate about the product, Yeah. it's gonna show. I have a friend who sell literally works for Office Depot and makes three quarters of a million dollars a year selling paper clips.

Yep. I I could not I'd be bored out of my mind. Um, so I love that advice. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I I absolutely love that because if you're not passionate about it, you're not gonna sell.

Dale, keep the comment about interrupting to yourself. Well, foreshadowing there. Um, yeah, I just I feel like if you the job of a quote unquote salesperson is to help that other person process the value of what your product or service can do. Yes.

And sometimes let's just face it like there it it's not valuable to everybody. And that's okay, right? It's a matter of making sure you've got good judgment, good instincts to know when you are sitting across from the right person and more importantly, when you're not. But I do not believe sales is all about getting somebody talking somebody into doing something and getting as much as you can out of them.

Like, I don't I always say I don't want something from my customers. I want something for them. And that's a very different um, mentality. And when you literally serve first, the sales just happen because they know you're not trying to convince them of something.

You're making recommendations all throughout the sales process. You're doing the work before you're even hired to do it. And so, I think any time that you can add value, make recommendations and put yourself in their shoes and have empathy and really serve them first and your paycheck second. Your paycheck is gonna it's gonna pay in dividends.

It just does. And it happens naturally without that ness of selling. And it's not only from that beginning standpoint. It's like an evolution because even if you do get to sell your customer, like, they're not gonna stay with you.

Like, if you're if you're trying to convince them of something, like, going back to when you start defining your ideal customer profile and all these types of things. If you really hit your customer profile with the value proposition, they're gonna stay around for a long period of time. I find it super interesting that you talk about sales being icky. Um, because I I kind of felt the same way as well when I first came out.

I used to be a coder. I was like, I'm never going into sales. So, I had some of the same mentality as you did. Until I was working with customers and hearing why people didn't like sales people.

Like, I never wanna see my sales person here ever again because they all they want is their commission and and I was like, Commission breath. There's gotta be. And they lied to me and they tell me what I want to hear versus the truth and yeah. It's the It's the old car salesman, right?

We're all used car salesmen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And so, we talk about I I I like to talk about it in putting the professional back in sales professional. Yeah. That's right. So.

Absolutely. It it's it's funny cuz I I remember a lot of founders and Dale, I don't know if you ever went through this. But I worked with a lot of founders where we would very deliberately, Angela, talk about don't use the word sales in your title. You're not a sales rep.

You're not a sales professional. because of the connotation of like, no one wants to talk No one wants to be sold, right? Yeah. That's right.

Um, and I agree. No one wants to be sold. People want to be serviced. People want to be consulted.

People want their needs met and their problems solved. And as revenue professionals, as sales professionals, if we can't solve that need, it's our responsibility to tell you that, listen, Lasso, revenue reimagined, whatever it is, isn't the right fit for you. And that's okay. And if you know someone who it is, great.

But if not, we can part ways best of friends. And there's nothing wrong with that. Um, and that is how you build relationships. So, I love your mindset there.

Um, growth is hard, right? You know, especially in today's economic climate. Um, there's this kind of pursuit of rapid growth while at the same time, this need to like balance scale, sustainability, what we kind of call responsible growth. How um, how are you guys managing that balance and like what are I I'd love to know for some of the founders listening, like some of the tough choices you guys had to make.

You talked about one of them with like going doing right by the customers. But how are you balancing this, man, we wanna grow, probably wanna, you know, raise or have an event or you know, whatever that happens to be versus Yeah. hold on, slow and steady wins the race these days. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I I think I think you can have both. Um, I think first of all, it's clarifying what scale means. A lot of times A lot of times people think scale means just adding people, right?

Oh, we're scaling. We're adding a ton of head count. And I think you can have both if, number one, you've got the right team. Um, that's really important.

You know how to get the most out of your team. And also, you have the data that is going to um, tell you where you need to go. I'll give you an example. So, within Lasso, we're growing.

We're bringing on a ton of companies. Um, our implementation, right? Where we could just add head count, or we could look to how do we get smarter and give the customer a better experience? What tools do we have at our disposal?

First, we have to dig in and understand our own numbers to know, how are we gonna know if we're scaling it, right? Like, you you've got to figure out that benchmark first. And I think a lot of people lose sight of having the numbers there and using the data to make a decision versus just that gut instinct. Um, and understanding, it's not just, oh, well, one implementation specialist can on board 30 people a month.

Okay, let's just hope we can squeeze 35 a month out of them. So we need three more, like, it's not that. It it's really understanding the whole customer journey and how do you get efficient in every single component. So by the time it gets to implementation, they have a better experience.

Sometimes maybe it's automation. Um, sometimes it's, you know, just data. And sometimes it it is having the right people. It's well, it's always about having the right people.

But you have to have some of those things in place. But it is a balance, right? Because sometimes you hear especially when raising capital, it's grow, grow, grow at all cost. And then it's be profitable.

And then it's do both at the same time. And and the reality is, you know, you you just have to kind of again, not look left and right, not let the market tell you about what is acceptable and right. You just have to figure out what is the best version of your company that you can create and do your best to accomplish both. But I don't think there's any kind of magic Yeah.

secret to it, you know? I think as as long as you've got the right team and you're digging in to figure out the metrics and understand that customer journey. There's so much there that people just I think sometimes forget where to look. Data over gut.

But then you probably have to add every day. Then you probably have to add gut back in. I always say data over gut and add. That is important.

But yes, not by itself. Yeah. Yeah. So, at Revenue Reimagined, we believe in giving more than receiving and you've been very gracious to provide our audience with something.

Yeah, so, um, one of the things that I think CS teams struggle with is um, the client engagement, right? It was the old age of the quarterly business review or I'm calling to check in. And I think a lot of times um, CS they struggle with, hey, how How can I add value? What what does the framework of a meaningful customer interaction look like, right?

And I think sometimes um, a lot of great CS people they wing it. Sometimes the relationship can get them only so far. And I don't know about you all, but I've had plenty of customers who have said, we love you. We love your team.

We love the product. We love, love, love. We're happy with it. But, right?

There's that but. Yeah. we're not going to renew, right? We made them happy but not successful.

And there's a big distinction there. And so, I think just giving CS a framework for that. So, the framework we use is with every engagement. If we're if we're asking for the business owner's time, we need to make sure it's really valuable.

And so, the framework is, I want to learn something about the organization. I wanna come prepared, be curious, ask good questions. Don't ask questions of things you can find on their website, right? Like, meaningful business acumen questions.

So, learn something before you teach something. And by teach something, it's making recommendations. Hey, I'm seeing this is how you're using it. Companies what we have found is a best practice this or hey, did you know you're leaving this much money on the table by not doing this?

So, teach them something, make a recommendation. And then the third one is prescribe something. Um, which is, hey, I'd like to recommend that you look at this. I'd like to suggest you do things differently, right?

So, something that makes them better. But just giving them that framework. So, we do less of checking in and more of having a framework for those meaningful conversations and how to layer in business acumen on top of that. So, um, that that would be something if it if it's a session that is helpful to others to kind of walk through that framework and how it might apply to their team.

That would be something I would be more than happy to do. I think it's super valuable. Um, I think there's a whole lot of uh, showing up and reviewing in a QBR and like giving information and, you know, just vomiting up information you could get off a dashboard. Um, and to your point as a business owner, um, that's not valuable.

You know, if I'm gonna take my time with someone, I went through this the other day on a product that we use. It was after 15 minutes, like, where's the value here? Because this is 15 minutes, I'm never gonna get back of my life. Um, so I think that would be super valuable.

Angela, what's the vision for the future? Where Where's Lasso going? The next two, three, five years and like what changes do you think y'all are gonna need to adapt to? I know that's kind of a pie in the sky question.

Um, whether it's, you know, technology, market, um, what's the plan for the future? Yeah, I think um, so we are what's called a vertical SAS. So, we only focus on one industry. Um, which again, all we want to do is just serve this industry and and go deep with them.

And so, um, that that's that's our plan. That is our long-term That's our vision is just to serve this industry like they've never been served before with great tools and resources. So, it conveys all the way down to the consumers of these events. So, they have a better experience.

So, that's that's what our vision is, is to own the space um, and to give them a modern, easy way to do their work. Because event professionals, I can't I mean, I could tell you so many like horror stories of all the things that show up and have to happen to produce an event. You know, we're consumers. We show up.

We have a great time at the Pink concert. Or Snoop, Dale. Or Snoop, Pink and Snoop together. 2024.

That's right. We have a great time. But we have no idea the hundred, sometimes thousands of people behind the scenes that it takes to make these things happen and all the logistical nightmares and making sure the right piece of equipment arrive from Phoenix in time and was put together the right way and every cue happens and every light flashes on time. It's like all of those things.

There are so many different moving parts. Um, so we want to give the industry, you know, a great way to do their jobs and make them look better. Love that. Love that.

Ready for some rapid-fire questions? Well, I have a feeling ready or not, here we go. Um, if you weren't in tech, what profession would you be in? Something with dogs.

Oh, I love it. Love it. What kind of dogs do you have, Angela? I have a boxer.

Okay. And I have a French bulldog. Oh, love it. We uh the the mini golden doodle disaster is is is barking at the Amazon person.

Right on time. Um. I know. Right right on right on queue.

Yeah. Angela, what's the first app you check when you wake up in the morning? My email. What's one word to describe your startup journey so far?

There's so many that come to my mind right now. Uh, I'm gonna go with exhilarating. Oh, I like that a lot. That's that's probably one of the better ones we've got.

What um, what's the one gadget you can't live without other than your phone? I don't know. Um, That's a really good one. I'm not a big gadget person.

I'm kinda old school. I don't know. My phone would definitely be it. But I don't I don't know of any other gadgets I really use.

No Fitbits, Apple Watches? Nope. None of it. None of it.

I never wear my Apple Watch. My husband he's tried to get me one twice. And I and I've just returned it each time. I'm like, I'm just not ready for that.

Just not ready. Plus, I think it was the last person to own a watch. I can't. No, I love my Blackberry.

Come on now. Love my. hold on, it's something until the very last minute. I'm like, fine, I'll upgrade.

It's the learning curve. I don't have time for it. But it works. Why why why try to do something different?

Exactly. Last one. Um, dream vacation destination. I would say probably Bora Bora.

Okay. Very nice. That's uh, that's how my wife's list as well. Uh, do you travel a lot, Angela?

For work I do. We try with we try every year at Christmas to give our kids a trip, um, as like we try to, you know, have a memory every year. So, that's what we give them for Christmas. And then this year we uh, we decided to put it into their hands.

So, all four of us had to come up with a PowerPoint. I gave the kids a budget. So, they could learn what it's like. Mom has been planning these trips for years.

So, they each got a budget. They could pick anywhere. My poor daughter didn't spend near enough. God love her.

I appreciate that about her, but we did not choose her vacation. Um, but we all had to present to the family which vacation we were gonna take. So, we try to be intentional about having that. Who won the vacation and where'd you go?

I won the vacation. Nice. to the Bahamas. Very cool.

And. Yeah. I love it. Angela, thank you so much for joining, for sharing your journey, Lasso's journey.

Uh, where can folks find you? Where can folks find and learn more about Lasso? Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn, um, under Angela Alea. And our website is Lasso.

io. L A S S O dot I O. Angela, thanks for joining. We appreciate it.

It was a blast. Thank you, guys.